The SOAM from this show, featured in the Super Ball "From the Archives", is unbelievable. CHECK IT OUT.

The set I Split Open and Melt is worth the price of admission. Set II Simple has a great ambient jam. Prince Caspian gets a shot of adrenalin when a naked fan jumped on stage. Prompting Fishman to shout "bring him back!"

Decent show from Fall '98 with some highlights. Phish, please come back to Madison!

SET 1: Possum, Wilson: A couple of ragers to open up the show, love it! >

Roggae: Nice breather here. Maze, Meat > Sparkle > Standard.

Split Open and Melt: Supposedly one of Mike’s favorite jams from Fall 98? Can anyone expound on that? I’ve listened to this a number of times over the years and then again three times in preparation for this review. It’s good but certainly not great. The whole band is featured as one throughout this jam, no one member steps up and takes charge. It is steady and consistent but doesn’t have any WOW moments. It surely is not anything like an early to mid-90’s tension and release type version.

SET 2: Makisupa Policeman: Love this spacy jam with great Trey effects, crowd definitely goes nuts for the university rent a cop key word. What exactly was the story behind this, I cannot remember anymore >

Funky Bitch: In the two hole in the second set? Page gets the crowd riled up. He had the opportunity to blow the roof off but more or less chose not to, interesting.

Simple: Extremely chill, whole band, groove centric jamming. Very mellow, the definition of that 98 ambient sound - ethereal. I like Fish on vacuum leading into Caspian – cool touch ->

Prince Caspian: Fishman and crowd go crazy for the naked guy “Bring him back, bring him back!” >

Fluffhead: Pretty good segue into Fluff! This version has some slop to it.

Hold Your Head Up > Bike > Hold Your Head Up: Fishman introduces the piano player as the organ player, the bass player as the bass player, the guitar player as the guitar player, etc et – He blows some lyrics then says everyone groan now which the crowd reciprocates. I get the sense he has a whole lot of IDGAF during this segment. Very curious.

Harry Hood: Huge cheers was over the arena when the glow sticks get busted out early into the jam. Someone on stage must have caught one on stage at 8:05, huge cheer. Not long after that one drills Fish’s kit and the crowd ‘OHHHHHHSSSSS”. Trey sounds distracted during this jam, likely fearful of getting drilled upside the head. Probably the same for the rest of the guys too. This is weird in that they go for the peak and it’s super meh. They regroup and go in for it again and honestly it’s not much better the second time around. Below average Harry Hood.

ENCORE: Birds of a Feather: First and last time they ever encored with BOAF.

Hello My Baby: Standard.

Summary: Solid show but it isn’t much above average. The show starts off with some fire in it’s belly and the first set is fairly solid. The anchor of course it the SOAMelt. I know there is a lot of love for this version and while I think it’s good I don’t think there is anything that’s great about it. Shrugs. Simple is quite exquisite and has tons of replay value. Outside of SOAMelt and Simple this show just doesn’t do it for me. I would rate it as a 3.5 out of 5. The current rating of 3.89 seems far too generous. Friday night energy in Madison probably skews some things. The crowd brough their energy, but did the band? I don’t think they did for the most part.

This show is, IMO, wildly underrated. One of the best SOAMelts I've encountered provides the big jam in Set I, but the whole dang set is played well - there's a 12-minute Maze here that's electric, the opening Possum kicks much ass, and I'm grateful for any version of Meat that exists (I love this tune)

But that Set II is just incredible. Maybe this show isn't as well-regarded as others from 1998 because of the relatively short length of these sets, but it's hard to deny how gorgeous the Simple ends up becoming. I could rave for hours about this Simple jam. I feel like it's the purest expression of what Phish seemed to be getting after in the best jams from this career-pinnacle year of 1998. The patience and delicacy the band plays with here would have been unimaginable just a few years before this. 1998 is often characterized as the year they introduced "ambient" jamming, but not every show from this year features a jam that can be called "ambient:" this one does, but I'd also argue that the jam is so compelling that it doesn't recede into the background like textbook-definition Eno-derived "ambient" music is meant to. Instead it commands the listener to follow closely to hear the intricacy of the interplay

The Caspian jam is also stellar, if of a completely different character as the Simple jam. It starts with Fishman on vacuum. and the jam explores a calm and almost eerie zone before launching into a perfectly played and placed Fluffhead. This three-song combo at the heart of the show stands head and shoulders over many centerpiece jams this year, but I rarely hear much chatter about it. The HYHU>Bike>HYHU is a nice change of pace after so much serious jamming, and the Hood is its usual beautiful self

It's downright lame IMO that there are only a couple of fan reviews of this show; I feel like it should be rated higher and people should really dig into that Simple>Caspian>Fluffhead sequence next time they're under any form of "enhancement." It will not let you down!